sabato 22 ottobre 2016

Temple Nightside - "The Hecatomb" (Iron Bonehead Productions, 2016)

Band: Temple NightsideTitle: The HecatombGenre: Black/Death/Doom metalYear: 2016Time: 42 minRating: 85/100You can read the review (in Italian) about the "Call of the Maelstrom" split through the following link:http://www.heavymetalwebzine.it/2015/09/08/vassafor-temple-nightside-call-of-the-maelstrom-2015/One year
ago I met a terrifying Australian band: Temple Nightside. The occasion was
their split “Call of the Maelstrom” with the New Zealand veterans Vassafor, a
band very similar to the Temple Nightside but playing the same style in a
different way. That time I was surprised by the tremendous oppressive aura of
the Temple Nightside’s music, weighted by a very dark production. But now the
band returns not with another split but directly with their second album, “The
Hecatomb” (like the homonym Ancient Greek ritual based on the animals’
sacrifice to honour the Gods), released by the German label Iron Bonehead
Productions on 5th August 2016, so in full Summer. But I decided to
listen to it only now, in full Autumn!

“The
Hecatomb”, whose magnificent cover artwork was made by Daniel Corcuera aka
Desecrator (also in the fantastic Slaughtbbath from Chile), confirms the Temple
Nightside like a band able to emanate a very malign and oppressive aura. In
this case, they have spewed forth 6 long tracks plus 3 totally atmospheric and
ambient episodes (these ones have all the subtitle “Commune”) that can lasts
also only 23 seconds (“Ossuary (Commune 3.1)”) so to give a little breath to
the listeners.

In fact,
Temple Nightside plays a claustrophobic black/death/doom metal à la Irkallian
Oracle giving a big importance to the (ultra)-slow tempos, as showed by songs
especially like “Within the Arms of Nothingness” and, above all, the conclusive
“Charnel Winds”, 9 minutes of a tortured and dark funeral doom characterized by
a riffing more “melodic” than the usual. Instead, songs like “Adrift in
Sepulchral Entropy”shows the more
violent and bestial black/death metal side of the band presenting a riffing
closer to Black Witchery and the likes. But, of course, Temple Nightside don’t
prefer the pure frontal impact, but the atmosphere.

By the way,
it is a kind of atmosphere not only oppressive but also incredibly ritualistic.
This is due mainly to various elements of Temple Nightside’s music like: the
mantric clean vocals here and there (you can listen to them already with the
opening track “Graven”) but the main vocals are veryhorrifying spectral growls alternated also
with some malevolent whispers; the gloomy and minimalistic (often majestic and
purely black metal like in “Within the Arms of Nothingness”) riffing very close
to Demoncy of “Joined in Darkness” while other times it’s closer to the darker
Beherit of “Drawing Down the Moon” with some noisy or atmospheric guitar solos;
and the often tribal drums in occult ritual-style of drummer Mordance. In
short, it is not a case that Temple Nightside dubs their music like
“Ritualistic Death Metal Necromancy”!

My
conclusion is that “The Hecatomb” is an infernal journey that sucks you in an
abyss with no return, especially if you aren’t not prepared for a music of this
kind. But, sure, it is an album very difficult to digest, so I advise that you
must listen to it slowly, if not you can lose some important details. And this
is an album full of details, also because Temple Nightside are now a sort of
superband composed by some famous names of the more extreme metal scene of
Oceania considering that, for example, the new entry V. Kusabs comes from the
aforementioned Vassafor, BR from the absurd Grave Upheaval while IV is the
mastermind of Ill Omen. For the rest, Temple Nightside have recently released
for Nuclear War Now! Productions a 6 bands-split to honour the now defunct dark
ambient/Industrial Swedish label Cold Meat Industry.

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